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Twitching in sleep?

nfrtnynfrtny member
in Special Needs

Hi everyone! It's been a while since I've posted, but I posted about concerns with my almost 2 year old DS being on the spectrum. Since then we have cut out gluten and he's always been dairy free, we also switched from soy to coconut milk per his homeopathic pedi, and he has shown huge improvements in just 2 or so weeks. Friends who had never heard him laugh before have actually heard it now. I was able to entertain him in the grocery store for 30 minutes last week by just TALKING to him. He has also started saying ma ma again, after a very long 7 months of silence. That and "go go go" are the only things he's saying, but it's huge. 

 Onto my question! :) over the weekend I'm pretty sure he had a seizure. We were out to breakfast, and his hands turned purple, and started shaking. He leaned into his plate with a bite on his fork, and just froze, for probably about a minute. He didn't respond to me (obviously not uncommon for him) but he had a look in his eyes like he was distressed, and physically could not move. I called the pedi, and she said to watch him, and bring him back in in 2-3 weeks for his 2 year check up and we'll see how he's doing then. She also told me to watch him in his sleep for seizures, which she said can be hard to spot. My question is, is twitching in your sleep normal? I have started taking videos to show the pedi. It's his hands/fingers, arms, shoulders, legs and feet. I have also seen his head twitch, but maybe only once since I've been watching him. It's pretty heavy twitching right after he's fallen asleep, but it continues throughout. Not sure what's happening all night long of course, because I'm sleeping as well :) this is mostly just what I've seen during naps.  

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Re: Twitching in sleep?

  • birdie_1010birdie_1010 member

    I have never experienced what you did with daytime seizure like activity, but I would be willing to share what my son experiences in his sleep.

    There are a lot of people that twitch while sleeping and it is perfectly normal and is not bothersome. There are some people (like my son) that have a benign twitch, but it is so great that it disrupts sleep. There are some people that the twitching is indicative of seizure activity. 

    My son was an awful sleeper from the day he was born.  After some time, we noticed that he twitched a lot when he slept.  It was all over twitching like you are describing in your post. We tried swaddling, we tried a weighted blanket with the help of his EI OT, we tried melatonin and various other things. Nothing seemed to help. We made an appointment with a neurologist who did a sleep deprived EEG to determine if the twitching was seizure activity. For us, it was just a benign twitch.  However, since it was so great that is was disrupting his sleep he referred us to a sleep specialist. My son now takes Alprazolam nightly to decrease his twitching. 

    I would probably ask for a referral from your ped at his appointment in 2 weeks to a neurologist. 

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  • grbnikgrbnik
    My DD does this in her sleep as well, and we had a 1 hour (sleep deprived) and 48 hour EEG (because she was showing signs at mealtime and other times, with head dropping and eye rolling as well) and none of it (even overnights caught on EEG) showed signs of seizures.  But, if you are concerned, and you see more during the day, make sure you push for a longer EEG (one with video).  They are pretty easy, and not too distressing for the kiddo (mine hated getting the leads on and off was the only bad part.).  GL!
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